F1 Spanish GP: Marchionne has 'total' confidence in Arrivabene

Ferrari president Sergio Marchionne says he has total faith in Maurizio Arrivabene, insists team is "in the best shape I've seen it in a long, long time"

Ferrari president and Fiat-Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne has insisted he has "total" confidence in Maurizio Arrivabene amid speculation over the Spanish Grand Prix weekend that the team principal could be replaced.

"Totally, totally. Beyond any question," he replied, when asked if Arrivabene has his confidence.

Pressed on if any changes are needed, he added: "No, I still think we have two of the world's best pilots ... We probably have the best pilot. I probably shouldn't be saying this with four drivers in front of us but I think we have great pilots. I think the team is in the best shape I've seen it in a long, long time.

"I think they need to work diligently to fix these issues ... I would not make a huge issue of the fact that on Saturday we had this out of body experience with operating the car in a temperature window which was not proper. Had we known it we would have done a variety of things differently. We're learning and the process has never happened to us, so we'll get better in this."

Meanwhile, Marchionne has dismissed talk he could be forced out, adding the only name missing on the list of replacements muted in some media reports was Tyrion Lannister from hit TV series Game of Thrones!

"What did Marchionne say? This is the answer [to the rumours]!" he added. "I'm not listening to all these rumours because the only objective of these rumours is to create tension inside the team. This is not helping.

"We need to refocus our attention to continue to do what we are doing without listening to all of these rumours that were also talking about somebody from Mercedes, blah, blah. Who is taking advantage of this? No-one.

"I said the other day the only name they forgot to put in the list because the list was full of names, was Tyrion Lannister because maybe he was the main candidate and they forgot to put his name on."